1. Field of the Invention
Example embodiments of the present invention relate to methods of fabricating nanoclusters and/or a dielectric layer having the same. Other example embodiments relate to methods of forming a dielectric layer formed of silicon oxide having embedded germanium nanoclusters.
2. Description of the Related Art
A semiconductor nanocluster in a dielectric layer may be used as a floating gate for a flash memory device. The flash memory device using the nanocluster may be less sensitive to a leakage current which may cause an outflow of electric charges during the storage of information. Thus, the storage period for information may potentially increase. Because nano-dots having a smaller size (e.g., 10 nm or less) may be used in the floating gate, a Coulumb blockage effect may occur at approximately room temperature. Accordingly, a threshold voltage shift may be quantized and/or multi-bit information may be stored.
According to the conventional art, nanoclusters may be formed in a substrate using an ion implantation process and/or by controlling processing conditions (e.g., deposition temperature and/or deposition pressure). It may be difficult to obtain nanoclusters having more homogeneous sizes and/or more homogeneous distances therebetween. The conventional art discloses a flash memory having a floating gate of germanium (Ge) nano-dots formed using a germanium (Ge) ion implantation process.